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The 1936 Berlin Olympics

Endre Altmann on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

Language: English

Endre Altmann recalls his experience as a member of the Romanian Olympic fencing team and explains his decision not to participate in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Discrimination: Rita Feder remembers the 1936 Olympics

Language: English

Rita Feder was a young girl during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and remembers how desperately she wanted to attend the games but was unable to because she was Jewish. Feder recalls how dangerous it was for Jews during that time even though there was an international audience in Berlin.

Hugo Beckerman on the atmosphere in Berlin before the start of the 1936 Olympics

Language: English

In preparation for the start of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Nazis in power decided to minimize the presence of anti-Semitism in the city. Hugo Beckerman recalls how he was able to identify the Jewish businesses that were still allowed to run at that time.

Agnes Adachi on the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games

Language: English

Agnes Adachi remembers attending the Olympic Games in Berlin 1936; and describes what it was like to watch Jesse Owens compete and win the gold medal. She recalls that the anti-Jewish restrictions and propaganda had been eased at the time because of the international presence in Germany.

Eric Frisch on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

Language: English

Eric Frisch describes his experience as a runner in the first Olympic torch relay, which spanned from Greece to Germany, at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Frisch further recalls meeting Jesse Owens forty years after the games.

Ellen Brandt on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

Language: English

Ellen Brandt recalls the efforts by the Nazis to hide any evidence of anti-Semitism from the press during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and the intensified anti-Semitism that came after the games.

Gerda Frieberg on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

Language: English

Gerda Frieberg describes her reactions to seeing Hitler during the festivities surrounding the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Endre Altmann on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

Language: English

Endre Altmann recalls his experience as a member of the Romanian Olympic fencing team and explains his decision not to participate in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Ellen Kilston on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

Language: English

Ellen Kilston remembers the Nazis’ hiding of all anti-Semitic propaganda during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. She further explains the role this deception played in shaping foreign perceptions of Jewish life under Hitler.

Diane Jacobs on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

Language: English

Diane Jacobs remembers watching Jesse Owens accept his medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and the admiration she felt for his refusing to salute the Nazi flag.

A series of clips featuring survivors recalling the difficulties of voting before and during the war in Europe and how it impacted their appreciation of the importance of participating in the democratic process.

A collection of Jewish survivors and other eyewitnesses to the Holocaust describe watching the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. In preparation for the start of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Nazis in power decided to minimize the presence of anti-Semitism in the city.

USC Shoah Foundation presents 24 stories of genocide survivors who recall their experiences as refugees in their testimonies preserved in the Visual History Archive. Each clip of testimony to inspire, inform and shed light on the impact of war, genocide and massacre forcing individuals from their homes.

From April to July 1994, one of the most brutal genocides in human history occurred in Rwanda. It claimed the lives of 800,000 men, women, and children, most of whom were of Tutsi descent. Kwibuka, the official anniversary of the Rwandan Tutsi Genocide, is observed every year on April 7. Explore this selection of testimony clips of survivors and eyewitnesses to the genocide from the Visual History Archive.

At the end of each interview the Institute recorded for the Archive, the interviewer would ask the interviewee if he or she had a special message for future generations watching the interview. The survivors and other witnesses often spoken about such themes as forgiveness, the importance of individual action, and the need to teach children tolerance. Here are a few messages from the Institute's Archive.

Several people responded to active discrimination by helping the victims in different ways. This is a collection of clips highlighting testimony from survivors and aid givers themselves. One question that sometimes emerges in these clips is "what made you stand up to discrimination and racial intolerance?"

A series of clips from survivors speaking about their experiences with personal as well as institutional forms of discrimination. These clips include testimonies from the European Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda collections.

Possibly the most well-known example of these rescue operations involved individual British families agreeing to “host” children from Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic through a program known as Kindertransport. Through this program, organized by Sir Nicholas Winton, an estimated 10,000 refugee children, most of them Jewish, were housed in the United Kingdom during the war. These children were able to avoid ghettoization and camp experiences; in many cases, they were the only members of their families to survive the Holocaust.